Method and apparatus for configuring bandwidth in class-based networks

Authors

Abstract

Next generation networks will support diverse types of real-time group communication services with different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements that must be supported by the underlying network in an efficient way. In this context, each service is defined as a session, which can be composed by a set of flows that may require similar or different quality levels, importance and rates. However, this scenario requires the control of multicast trees and network resources of the available service classes on the path from the sender towards the receivers, in order to allow the distribution of the multicast session content with QoS guarantees in heterogeneous environments with asymmetric routing.
The Single-pass Resource Reservation and Multicast Tree Control (ReCast) proposal aims to solve this problem, by controlling the multicast tree creation at the same time that the network resources for the selected service class are reserved, therefore installing the multicast state simultaneously with the resource reservation process. This proposal uses a single-pass signalling to control the resource reservation and multicast tree construction which aims to decrease the signalling overhead and session setup time as well as the system complexity.